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subject of medical education. After detailing his own case, and 
pointing out the various ways in which he had been called upon, in 
the course of his professional duties, to avail himself to the utmost, 
not only of his medical knowledge, but of general scientific and lite- 
rary education and acquirements, he proceeded to observe :— It 
appears to me that Natural History, Botany, and Chemistry ought, 
inter alia, to be compulsory branches of general education, with 
which every medical student ought to be acquainted before he enters 
upon the more purely medical department of his curriculum. Have 
examinations on these subjects prior to the first annus medicus if you 
will. This is merely a matter of arrangement and convenience to be 
adjusted between the professors and students. The thorough know- 
ledge of these subjects furnishes an admirable training for the mind 
of every gentleman who has any pretensions to education; and so far 
from reducing the number of such collateral and accessory branches 
of the curriculum (or rather, as I think, they ought to be of the gene- 
ral preliminary education), or rendering more lenient the graduation 
examinations, I hope the tendency will be found to be greatly to 
increase the former in extent and the latter in strictness, and thus 
endeavour to raise the standard of attainment among the alumni of 
our Alma Mater. Among the classes which might advantageously be 
added to the preliminary education of the medical student, are the 
German and French languages, Natural and Moral Philosophy, Meta- 
physics, Mathematics, and Drawing.” 
Dr. Balfour remarked that Dr. Lindsay had been a distinguished 
student of medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and that he was 
a zealous naturalist. His donations to the Museum of Economic 
Botany indicated his zeal and ability. In recommending Natural- 
History studies as not incompatible with practical acquirements in 
medicine, Dr. Lindsay’s own case might have been given as an illus- 
tration of such a combination. Dr. Balfour was satisfied that those 
students who distinguished themselves in Botany were those who were 
also eminent in all their medical studies. Many of them now occupied 
eminent positions in various parts of the world. Among recent 
students of Botany, he alluded to Dr. Lindsay, Dr. Sanderson, Dr. 
Cobbold, Dr. Murchison, and Dr. Priestley, as examples of zealous 
botanists who have shown themselves able practitioners. 
Dr. Balfour was satisfied that Natural History and Botany ought to 
form part of the study of every general student, and that they ought 
not to be confined to the medical curriculum. No student should 
enter on the practical study of medicine without having undergone a 
